Ferguson hails best of season

Sunday 21 January 2007 00:10 BST

Sir Alex Ferguson hailed Manchester United's performance as their best of the season as two goals from Wayne Rooney helped them demolish nine-man Aston Villa 4-1.

Rooney took his tally to six in the last five games for club and country as the Red Devils notched up a seventh successive league win and moved back into second spot in the table, two points adrift of Arsenal.

Ferguson said: "The performance is what we should be talking about because it was superb. The flow of our game, the tempo and movement, was outstanding. It was our best performance of the season."

He added: "Many sides will find it hard to come to Villa Park and win this season. It was a really good Villa team we got the better of."

Rooney and Carlos Tevez tormented the Villa back four and the England striker was only denied the hat-trick when Stewart Taylor saved his second half penalty.

Ferguson added: "Wayne is in one of those spells where he is scoring all the time. He is like that at times and his movement was terrific.

"Wayne and Tevez made it very difficult for Villa. But then again they are two outstanding players. Tevez could have had a hat-trick and we made plenty of good chances. I'm very happy with the performance."

Villa had a day to forget with midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker and goalkeeper Scott Carson being sent off.

Villa Manager Martin O'Neill said: "We got off to a great start and maybe should have scored a second goal. But the goals we conceded were really poor from our point of view. They were avoidable and suddenly we find ourselves 3-1 down at half-time.

"We tried to get back in it but I thought the sending off of Nigel was a big moment in the game. The first booking was debatable, the second is never a yellow card in a million years. It was really harsh."